


Going Nowhere Fast

by stoplightglow



Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Late Night Conversations, M/M, Public Transportation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 01:39:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17653574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stoplightglow/pseuds/stoplightglow
Summary: Meeting Frank turns out to sort of be the best thing to happen to Gerard in a long time.





	Going Nowhere Fast

**Author's Note:**

> thank you [nat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/corruptedkid) for beta, and [saint mercy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stigmatasis) for convincing me that this was worth finishing in the first place.

Meeting Frank turns out to sort of be the best thing to happen to Gerard in a long time. It’s a friend of a friend type situation, nothing special, but it  _ feels _ like it is. They just click. It’s strange, because Gerard never thought he would enjoy going out at night — not since he got sober, anyway — but every morning when he blinks his eyes open, he feels a holistic sense of  _ content.  _

It might be because Frank’s definition of going out seems to be different from everyone else in the world’s. Frank drives them to dusty arcades to play Galaga until the employees throw them out. They watch midnight movies with terrible special effects, and Frank drinks soda through a Twizzler and laughs at Gerard’s dumb commentary. They have lukewarm coffee at hole-in-the-wall diners that stay open all night. Sometimes they talk, sometimes they just keep each other company in silence. Gerard can’t tell if they’re both spectacularly lonely or if they’ve accidentally become good friends. Maybe a little bit of both.

One night, Frank shows up at the end of Gerard’s driveway, but he’s not leaning against his station wagon. “My car’s in the shop,” he explains once Gerard is close enough to speak at a normal volume. “We’re doing things your way tonight.”

Gerard stops in front of him. It’s weird, the break in routine, if whatever they have here can be called a routine. They do different things every night, but it’s always with Frank, so it leaves him feeling the same — warm, and a little like he isn’t attached to his own body. “My way?”

“Yeah, the car-less way.” Frank grins crookedly. “But I think I walked twice as far as I needed to on my way here. Where’s the nearest bus stop?”

The answer is, of course, four blocks away, which Gerard knows by heart because it’s where he treks five days a week at an ungodly hour of the morning. It’s not quite as terrible at night, since there aren’t other people out and he doesn’t have to deal with the glare of the sun. It’s peaceful. He isn’t worried about getting jumped in this neighborhood as long as he’s with someone else.

It’s only once they’re on the near-vacant bus that Gerard thinks to ask where they’re headed. Not slowing down on his walk to the very last row of seats, Frank looks over his shoulder. “Why do we have to be going somewhere?”

“Um.” Gerard blanks, because what the hell is he supposed to say to that? That’s kind of the sole reason people get on the bus in the first place. “I don’t know, because we usually go places?”

Frank grabs him by the forearm and pulls him down into the adjacent seat just as the bus starts to move again. “Sure, but I see no reason to stick to that plan. I have a lot of coins. Let’s just stay here until they kick us off.”

Well, okay. It’s not like Gerard had other plans. He crosses his ankles and tries to get comfortable. It’s different with someone else; his usual company is just a cup of coffee and his ratty work bag. “So we’re going nowhere tonight?”

“Even nowhere is somewhere,” Frank says. He kicks up his short legs and puts his combat boots in Gerard’s lap. “Do you mind?”

Gerard bites his lip. He’s usually not huge on having people encroach on his personal space, but Frank is pretty tiny and his warmth is helping fight back against the air conditioning unit right above them. He can let it slide this one time. As penance, though, he unties both of Frank’s boots and then knots them together by the laces.

“Fucker,” Frank says, nudging Gerard in the stomach with the toe of his boot. It’s a bit of a stretch, seeing as how it’s connected to the left one. Gerard has to tilt his head back and look at the grimy ceiling so Frank doesn’t catch his smile.

It should be boring, sitting on a bus for more than an hour, but it never is. It turns into an odd sort of people-watching exercise, because anyone who gets on public transportation at one in the morning has a story to tell. No one sits near them, though, so he and Frank are forced to come up with their own tales.

“I bet she works in a test lab that’s trying to make cyber-monkeys,” Frank whispers as a brunette in a lab coat and rain boots gets on. “Sometimes the monkeys explode. That’s why she needs the rain boots.”

Gerard wrinkles his nose. “Gross, dude.”

Frank’s boots twitch in Gerard’s lap. It happens every time he smiles, like the happiness is too much to be contained in a stationary body. “Don’t even front. You would totally want to see that.”

“Yeah,” Gerard admits as a guy in all black steps onto the bus. “Oh, shit, he totally works for a supervillain.”

It goes on like that for a while. Everyone who gets on the Belleville route that night between midnight and two a.m. has a story, whether it’s the right one or not. Gerard looks down at Frank’s boots, still knotted together on his lap. He wonders what their stories would be.

“You know.” Frank interrupts his thoughts. “If we got off this bus at the edge of Belleville and walked a few blocks, we could pick up whatever route they have in the next town over. Then we could ride that one to the edge and find out what’s in the town after that. We could just ride the bus to places we don’t know until we die. We could go nowhere forever.”

The images of Mikey’s and Elena’s faces pop into Gerard’s head suddenly. The idea of leaving them behind makes his mouth taste sour. “I don’t know. I kind of like it here.”

Frank lets himself lean until the tip of his ear is just barely touching Gerard’s shoulder. He looks up at him, and for the first time, Gerard notices how dark and dusky his under-eye circles are. “I like it here, too,” he says. “Not Belleville, but here.”

Gerard thinks he gets what Frank means. 

They call it quits before Frank completely runs out of coins and can’t get them back home. At some point, the route had looped around, so now the stop in front of Frank’s apartment complex is before the one for Gerard’s neighborhood. 

Gerard cups his hand on the window so he can look out without just seeing a reflection of the bus’ interior. He can’t make out much from the glow of the moon and street lamps alone, just that it’s a squat, grey-ish building. “This is you?”

Frank swings his feet back onto the floor to stand up, then almost faceplants. Gerard suppresses a laugh and bends over to unknot the damage he’d done. “Yeah. Are you going to be okay getting home on your own?”

Gerard rolls his eyes. He’s older than Frank, for Christ’s sake. “It’s only, like, four stops away.”

“I know, but it’s kind of a walk after that. I want you to be safe.”

“I’ll be fine,” Gerard says. “I know karate.” To prove his point, he chops some air in half.

Frank raises a dubious brow. “White belt?” 

“Bought it in the gift shop.” Gerard grins for a second, then sobers. “No, seriously, I’ll be fine. I’ll text you when I make it back.”

A couple of conflicting emotions flash over Frank’s face, but in the end he says, “Okay.” He reaches out and squeezes Gerard’s wrist quickly, his touch gone just as fast as it had appeared. “Don’t forget.”

Gerard can still feel the buzzing imprint of Frank’s fingertips four stops later when he finally gets off. He lets himself into the basement quietly, thankful to get home safely, and the last thing he remembers doing before drifting off is texting Frank,  _ Made it. _

When he wakes up, he has a message that reads,  _ thank you. _

He considers texting back, but in the end, he doesn’t bother. He knows he’ll see Frank soon enough. 


End file.
